Best Lipstick Formulas 2019

Most makeup collectors have their color kryptonite, particularly when it comes to lipstick: pinky nudes, corals, blue-based reds. For me that color is, and has pretty much always been, magenta. Or whatever you want to call it: bright plum, dark fuchsia, anything that walks the line between purple and deep pink. I just did a lazy Google search for "magenta," and here's the image that comes closest to my Platonic ideal: Magenta isn't a particularly trendy color these days. It evokes 1980s excess, and can read especially '80s if paired with blue or green. For proof, here's my own vintage '80s dress, which I can't wear in public because I'm a somewhat self-respecting adult, but also can't get rid of because look at it : Detail of the pattern: There is something tacky and hedonistic about magenta, but my natal decade was not the only tacky, hedonistic one in history (though it sure came close). In fact, magenta is a nineteenth-century color, a produ...

Sorry I've been posting so erratically this month! I usually try for one post every three days, but lately it's been two posts in two days, then a break of five or six days, then two more posts in two days. I'm trying not to beat myself up about it, because inspiration comes and goes for us all, but I'm hoping I can get into a more regular pattern soon. I blame March. It's an untrustworthy month in so many ways, and it leads me to do untrustworthy things like make an Ulta order when I've already announced a March-long no-buy on my blog. "Holy magenta!" really was the phrase that popped into my head when I first saw swatches of NYX's new Intense Butter Gloss in Spice Cake. (My fingers keep wanting to type "Space Cake," for some reason. It's true that the deep shiny fuchsia-magenta is the sort of lip color one would wear to an intergalactic rave.) Despite my love for NYX's original Butter Glosses (I reviewed Peach Cobbler and Raspb...

Well, I finally did it. Almost half a year after NARS released the new Audacious Lipstick formula in 40 shades, I decided on one. Meet Angela, described by NARS as a "pink orchid." Angela wasn't the first Audacious lipstick, or even the fifth or sixth, to catch my eye; but all that matters is that we're together now. The color is perfectly poised between pink and purple, and it's bright and happy without veering into unnatural fluorescence. How did they do it? I wish I knew. It's that NARS color magic, the same magic that makes the perfect eyeshadow duo out of plum and mint. When photos and reviews of the Audacious range began appearing online last August, I knew I'd have to buy one eventually. But, aware that the lipsticks were permanent, I told myself that I mustn't be rash. They were $32 each, a $5 increase from NARS' usual (and, for my budget, already steep) price for lipsticks, which meant that careful deliberation was required. I wanted a co...